Economics & Investing For Preppers

In place of my usual news items and commentary on economics and the markets, I have some annual housekeeping to do:

My Annual Financial/Investing/Foreign Interests Disclosures:

By Federal law, I am obliged to make the following annual public disclosures.

For the record: I am presently the sole author of SurvivalBlog’s Economics & Investing For Preppers column. I am not a paid investment counselor or adviser. Please see our Provisos page for our detailed disclaimers.

My paid consulting is primarily on preparedness, relocation, retreat property development, and related topics–not on investing, per se.

SurvivalBlog is a private information service and not a public accommodation.

Personal and Family Interests

My highest loyalty is to Christ Jesus (Yeshua.)

I am not a board member of any corporation. I hold no stocks, mutual funds, bonds, options, hedge investments/instruments, registered securities, or ETFs whatsoever. I am not paid or otherwise compensated by any individual, company, or country to promote any investment vehicle or currency.

I do not recommend or endorse any financial particular investment advisor, firm, blog, vlog, or website, although I do quote various advisors and make links to their websites. Such mentions, quotes, and links are my own choices, and are never compensated.

While I personally hold precious metals, firearms, ammunition, and other tangibles as a large portion of my family portfolio, I have no connection or financial arrangement with any firm, other than that some such firms do buy advertising space in SurvivalBlog, and that we have affiliate advertising contracts in place with others. I do on occasion personally make purchases from these companies. However, I receive no  discounts nor other special considerations from them. Such advertising relationships have no bearing on the investing news that I report and the recommendations that I make.  I have never held any Forex or Comex options.

I own and operate Elk Creek Company, a small home-based mailorder business that sells antique guns, replica percussion guns, percussion cartridge conversion cylinders, knives, bayonets, and multitools. I have no contractual relationship with the makers of any of those products. My ownership of Elk Creek Company has no bearing on the investing news that I report and the recommendations that I make. From time to time, I mention sales and particular Elk Creek Company products in this column. Throughout my adult life, I have recommended investing in antique guns. Operating Elk Creek Company has not changed that. I held a Class 01 Federal Firearms license from 1981 to 1992. The merchandise that I now sell has no license required.

Along with one of my sons, I operate CFAPA.org, to distribute press credentials free of charge to adult citizens of the 50 States, as Citizen Journalists. We accept donations, but in most years those donations barely cover the web-hosting and domain registration expenses of CFAPA.org.

My revenue streams are small and diverse. These include: Book publishing royalties, advertising, consulting, Elk Creek Company mailorder sales, archive USB stick sales, and Ten Cent Challenge voluntary subscriptions.

Walls of Separation

We maintain walls of separation between the advertising, consulting, and editorial realms. No editorial space or content in this column is ever promised to any advertiser or consulting client. Stephen Cochran of Gainseville Coins voluntarily writes a monthly precious metals column for SurvivalBlog, but he and Gainseville Coins are not compensated by me nor vice versa, in any way. I am afforded no discounts by the company, and I have received no free or discounted merchandise or other favors from them.

A few article links have been suggested by our advertisers, but we have never been compensated or felt obliged to post them.

I quit the Amazon Associates program in January 2021. Because of their censorship and unfair business practices, I publicly distanced myself from Amazon, and recommend that my readers and consulting clients buy from other vendors.

I have never accepted any payment, discounts, merchandise, or other consideration in exchange for any editorial mentions, reviews, or endorsements. We universally reject the dozens of paid editorial, infographic, product review, and link placement requests that we receive every week via e-mail from spammers, scammers, SEO wonks, and content manipulators.

No Foreign Interests

I am not now, nor have I ever been an agent of any foreign nation. I do hold some foreign currency. I own no foreign real estate. Only a few of my consulting clients live abroad, and most of those are U.S. citizens.

Clearances and Taskings

Up until 1991, I held a Top Secret security clearance and had access to SCI. I did some tasked intelligence work overseas. (See the photo above, from the Guardrail IGR-V program.) That ended before 1991. After being de-briefed from Special Access Programs (SAPs), I resigned my commission as a U.S. Army Intelligence Corps officer. My formal resignation letter was submitted on January 20, 1993 — the day that Bill Clinton first took office.  Since then, I have had no intelligence taskings or any relationship whatsoever with the U.S. government, the U.S. Army, or any government agencies. Since January 20, 1993, I have been just a normal taxpaying citizen.

I have had no contact with the FBI or any other Federal law enforcement agency since the conclusion of a foreign intelligence penetration case in 1990, where I provided a signed statement as a witness.

I did work in technical writing and proposal writing capacities for various defense contracting companies up until July, 2006. I no longer hold an active security clearance. Both my military and industrial clearances have lapsed. I am a past member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO), but I have had no contact with that organization since the mid-1990s.

Summary and Conclusion

In sum, we do our very best to operate SurvivalBlog.com as ethically and independently as possible. Our editorial integrity and independence is very important to us. We will never betray the trust of our readers. In an age where journalistic prostitution has become the norm in the blogging and vlogging world, we stand apart. – JWR

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Dying was nothing and he had no picture of it nor fear of it in his mind. But living was a field of grain blowing in the wind on the side of a hill. Living was a hawk in the sky. Living was an earthen jar of water in the dust of the threshing with the grain flailed out and the chaff blowing. Living was a horse between your legs and a carbine under one leg and a hill and a valley and the hills beyond.” – Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — January 5, 2023

On January 5th, 2005 The solar system’s largest known dwarf planet was discovered. The discovery of Eris ultimately led to the International Astronomical Union (IAU) downgrading Pluto, which has roughly the same size, to a dwarf planet.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 104 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  4. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  5. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.
  6. Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.

Second Prize:

  1. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  2. A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679
  3. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

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More than $775,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 104 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Hiding and Tracking – Part 3, by J.M.D.

(Continued from Part 2.)

Weather

The weather can have a significant impact on both the trackers as well as the trackees. A clear sunny day can make it easier to follow someone visually and detect signs of their passage, while rain, snow, fog or mist can reduce visibility and require trackers to close the distance or move slower to locate sign. At the same time, snow on the ground will leave obvious footprints and is one of the easiest conditions in which to track someone, unless it’s snowing hard enough or blowing snow that fills in or covers tracks. Rain will soften the ground and increase the chances of leaving footprints, but heavy rain can also wash away signs. Wind can carry sounds and scents, increasing their detection distance, and odors can be more easily detected in cold weather.

As a trackee you may have the advantage of choosing what kind of conditions you travel in, depending on the weather and your schedule.

Distance/Schedule

From a tracker’s perspective, distance is an enemy – in most scenarios, the further you have to track someone the more likely you are to lose them, assuming the tracker can’t outpace the trackees and catch up to them. The trackers also need to decide if they have enough resources to continue a long pursuit, and if the end goals are worth the investment in time and resources.

As a trackee you may have the option of taking a longer and more convoluted route to your destination, giving you more of a chance to detect and evade any trackers or break your track. If you have the right gear you may also be able to continue traveling at night, which may make it harder to track you.Continue reading“Hiding and Tracking – Part 3, by J.M.D.”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “JWR”. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats, and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. Today, we look at expected lower grain crop yields, because of the jump in fertilizer prices.

Soaring Fertilizer Prices: Millions More Undernourished

Reader C.B. sent us this disturbing news: Soaring fertilizer prices could see millions more undernourished. The article begins:

“High fertilizer prices could put an additional 100 million people at risk of undernourishment, a study suggests.

The war in Ukraine has led to the blockade of millions of tons of wheat, barley and corn, but reduced food exports from the region are less of a driver of food price rises than feared, researchers say.

Instead, a modeling study led by University of Edinburgh researchers suggests surging energy and fertilizer prices will have by far the greatest impact on in coming decades.

Until now, how energy and fertilizer price rises and restrictions affects future global food prices was poorly understood. There has also been little analysis to quantify the scale of harm that hikes in the price of food could have on human nutritional health and the environment.

The team used a global land-use computer model to simulate the effects of export restrictions and spikes in on food prices, health and land use until 2040.”

“Sudden, Unexpected Deaths Exploded” in Germany Since 2021

Reader V.L. sent us this: Data of 72 Million Insured Shows “Sudden, Unexpected Deaths Exploded” in Germany Since 2021.

The 10 Safest and Unsafest Cities In America

Forbes reports: The 10 Safest (And Unsafest) Cities In America.  This article links to the more detailed WalletHub report.

Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“There is a difference between resistance to specific commands and resistance by means of revolution to dethrone and replace an existing ruler. A tyrant is one whose habit of tyrannical actions strikes at a fundamental good of human society; his actions are akin to an unprovoked war against the people. Thus, he is a man warring against the nation, and since any nation can defend itself against national threats, the nation can conduct war against him. A just, violent revolution is a type of defensive war.” – Stephen Wolfe, The Case For Christian Nationalism

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — January 4, 2023

On January 4th, 1896 Utah became the 45th state of the Union. One condition for statehood was that a ban on polygamy had to be written into the state constitution.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 104 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  4. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  5. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.
  6. Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.

Second Prize:

  1. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  2. A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679
  3. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

—

More than $775,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 104 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

 

Hiding and Tracking – Part 2, by J.M.D.

(Continued from Part 1.)

A somewhat more obscure but still possible method of tracking is by following an electronic signal. If you’re using any type of transmitting device such as a radio or cell phone, a tracker could potentially locate you by detecting that signal. There have been a number of good articles on SurvivalBlog.com on radio frequency direction finding and locating, so I’m not going to go into detail here. Someone could also plant a dedicated tracking device on you or your vehicle and use that to track your location, but the tracker would obviously need the right equipment to locate and track signals.

Factors that Impact Tracking

How you leverage the various methods of tracking and how well they work will depend on a lot of different factors, and it’s critical to understand how these factors can impact both the tracker and the target. These factors include:

  • Goals
  • Personnel
  • Terrain
  • Weather
  • Distance/Schedule
  • Schedule
  • Repetition
  • Transport
  • Support animals
  • Kit

I’m going to cover these in more detail in the following paragraphs.Continue reading“Hiding and Tracking – Part 2, by J.M.D.”

SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

This weekly column is a collection of short snippets: responses to posted articles, practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. Note that we may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters.

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L.R. (a close friend of mine) recommended this thought-provoking essay: Lovers of Truth and Lovers of Lies: Seeing new lessons for today in Mel Gibson’s iconic portrayal of ‘The Patriot’.

o  o  o

The ultimate “down the memory hole” irony? Amazon Secretly Removes “1984” From the Kindle.

o  o  o

Reader C.B. sent this: Watch: Bald eagle flies with Canadian goose clutched in talons.

o  o  o

JMG sent this disturbing news: BARR: Biden’s ‘Infrastructure’ Bill Contains Backdoor ‘Kill Switch’ For Cars

“Buried deep within the massive infrastructure legislation recently signed by President Joe Biden is a little-noticed “safety” measure that will take effect in five years. Marketed to Congress as a benign tool to help prevent drunk driving, the measure will mandate that automobile manufacturers build into every car what amounts to a ‘vehicle kill switch.’”

o  o  o

Biden Opens Door to China Sabotage in North Dakota.

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — January 3, 2023

On January 3, 1924 the Pharaoh Tutankhamun mummy was located near Luxor, Egypt, where King Tut’s tomb was discovered two years prior. This stone sarcophagus, which inside contained a mummy of Pharaoh Tutankhamun of Egypt.

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For those who have asked about ordering the 2005-2022 edition of the SurvivalBlog Archives USB stick: The new edition is being “built” now, and should be orderable by January 22nd, 2023. Please mark your calendar to look for the Archive USB stick ad that week. Shipments will begin in February.

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 104 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  4. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  5. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.
  6. Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.

Second Prize:

  1. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  2. A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679
  3. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

—

More than $775,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 104 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

 

Hiding and Tracking – Part 1, by J.M.D.

I enjoy learning new things and picking up new skills, and the many activities I engage in such as shooting, paintball, backpacking and, of course, prepping give me ample motivation and opportunity to do so. A year or so ago while on a backpacking trip with some friends I met a guy who was a pretty decent tracker, and after he kindly spent some time on that hike showing me some of the basics I decided that tracking (and evading trackers) were some skills that might be useful in a TEOTWAWKI scenario. Since then I’ve taken training classes, read books, researched a lot of online material and invested a good amount of field time in learning how to track both people and animals. The goal of this article is to provide a starting point for understanding the basics of tracking and hopefully give the reader an incentive for adding this skill to your survival arsenal. I want to state that I’m by no means an expert tracker – I’ve only been practicing and learning for about a year, and I have a long way to go before I’d even consider myself a novice, but I thought that sharing my experiences and what I learned might be useful for others.

To begin with, tracking and evading are two sides of the same coin – knowledge of how to track someone can be just as useful for helping you evade pursuers, and developing habits to minimize your ‘footprint’ on the world while instinctively paying attention to the signs left by others can help you in a lot of different scenarios. In a post-disaster environment you may need to track down someone who’s been poaching your livestock or locate a lost family member, or you may need to avoid leading some bad guys back to your homestead. Even in today’s ‘normal’ environment you may be followed or tracked by people that mean you harm.

There are also people that debate the meaning of ‘tracking’ versus ‘following’ someone – ‘tracking’ typically means using signs someone leaves behind in the environment to figure out where they’re going, how many people are involved, etc., whereas ‘following’ typically means maintaining visual contact with the person you want to keep track of. For the purposes of this article I’m just going to use the word ‘tracking’ for both, since the goals are essentially the same.Continue reading“Hiding and Tracking – Part 1, by J.M.D.”

SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. We also mention companies of interest to preppers and survivalists that are located in the American Redoubt region. In today’s column, news of an arrest in the Idaho multiple stabbing murders case. (See the Idaho section.)

Idaho

A suspect has been arrested in connection to the University of Idaho murders. Over at Fox News: Idaho murder suspect: Who is Bryan Christopher Kohberger?  A quote:

“Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, is a PhD student at the department of criminal justice and criminology, according to the WSU website.”

o  o  o

Idaho suspect stalked victims for weeks and woregloves after quadruple murder to avoid leaving trail of evidence, claims friend of investigator: ‘He’s not stupid and has been very careful’.

o  o  o

I found another interesting old Outdoor Idaho video segment: The River of No Return.

And that led me to this segment by Grits Gresham about Sylvan Hart (a.k.a. Buckskin Bill), and visiting Hart’s nearest neighbor, the twice-widowed Frances Wisner. Gresham’s video was for Sports Afield: Homesteading in the Wilderness of Idaho.

o  o  o

Idaho Lowers Income Tax Rates, Creates Rebate.

Related news: Idaho’s new flat tax.

o  o  o

From the leftist NPR: New faces mean big changes for 2023 Idaho Legislature.

o  o  o

Man shot, killed by Post Falls police on I-90 identified.

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt”

Preparedness Notes for Monday — January 2, 2023

On January 2, 1999, major snowstorm struck the Midwestern U.S., leaving 14 inches of snow in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and 19 inches in Chicago, Illinois, where temperatures plunged to -13 °F (-25 °C); 68 deaths were reported.

On this day in 1936, the first night vision electron tube was revealed in St. Louis, Missouri.

And January 2nd, 1776 is also the anniversary of the first revolutionary flag to be displayed in the American English colonies.

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Today’s feature article is a product review written by SurvivalBlog Field Gear Editor Thomas Christianson.